The new law issued on July 29 allows men who are eligible for retirement to register to participate in non-combat roles if they are assessed by military doctors as healthy and approved by the unit commander. The contract will last for 1 year and can be extended when there is further approval.
The bill was originally introduced by a group of lawmakers in April and was approved by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) during its second review in early July.
Notably, according to current Ukrainian law, 60 years old is the minimum retirement age for men. Observers say the measure is to address the shortage of human resources in the Ukrainian armed forces.
Earlier this year, Kiev also launched a volunteer military recruitment campaign targeting men aged 18 to 24 to overcome the situation.
However, the results were not very positive as President Volodymyr Zelensky's military adviser, Pavlo Palisa, said in May that the program had only reached 500 contracts after 2 months of implementation.
Since the conflict with Russia broke out in 2022, Ukraine has issued general mobilization orders across the country. Accordingly, all men between the ages of 18 and 60 are prohibited from leaving the country.
Until 2024, facing increasing losses, the Zelensky administration has even lowered the mandatory military age from 27 to 25 while tightening stimulus regulations.
In a recent interview with the Hungarian media, Zelensky also admitted that motivation is still a big challenge.
